Where No One Knows
by LightningFuryStrike13
Summary: Just a stray thought I had. Inspired by a line in the title song by Jann Arden. Short one-shot.


Disclaimer: I don't own Glee. I'm making no money from this. I don't own Jann Arden's _Where No One Knows_

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Rachel sat in her wedding dress in her room just hours before her wedding. It was the first time in weeks she'd had a single moment to herself. As she stared alternatively between the ring and the mirror she tried not to think about what she was doing. The window slide open and two heavy boots stepped lightly down on to the floor. Puck sat down heavily next to her. Her body bounced as he did and his weight made her tilt toward him. She was always either tilting toward him or running away as fast as she could. He stared at her through the mirror.

"I'm leaving."

She turned to stare directly at him but he wouldn't look at her still stared at her through the mirror. Finally turn to meet his eyes there. "What are you talking about?"

"My grades aren't good enough to graduate this year. I'll have to repeat. I'm not staying here another year. I took the GED; passed. I'm leaving. My uncle's got a job lined up for me doing construction."

She looked into his serious eyes and looked away. She wasn't leaving. She was tying a stone to her neck in a few hours. No she loved Finn and he loved her. Together they would leave…when Finn graduated. His grades weren't good enough either. He was repeating several junior classes and there was no way he could pass the GED it probably hadn't occurred to him to try.

"I have some things to say before I go though."

"Not you too." Rachel got up and began pacing around the room giving the same replies that she had to every naysayer that had tried to talk to her since she'd said yes.

He waited until she'd run out of steam and was standing over him with her hands on her hips. He stood, so close that he towered over her and gently turned her around and sat her back down before kneeling in front of her. "I wasn't going to say that."

"Oh." She was taken off guard. For weeks she'd been in one of two modes, in love or defensive about her love. This was unexpected.

"I've watched you these last few weeks and I don't think you've had a single second to just sit and think since you said yes. That's what I want. I want you to sit and think. Can you do that for me?"

She nodded tentative still sure there was a trick in there somewhere.

"First I want you to think like you did when you were fifteen. You and your dreams against the world. Take charge. Fuck you. Get out of my way Rachel Berry. What was your ideal future then?"

"Noah." She reprimanded. There, she knew there was a trick.

"Please Baby. Just do this for me. There's more. Ideal future for that Rachel and realistic future for that Rachel."

"Ugh ideally I go to New York and the directors of musicals are blown away by my voice. I immediately get the lead in one of my favorite musicals and then another one right after the other until I happily retire. Somewhere in there I find love and have a family. But you see Noah I just found love here in Lima instead I didn't have to wait until New York."

"Now realistic future for that Rachel?"

"Ummm… I work bit parts in several small musicals until I'm discovered or if not I get a job doing something on Broadway as it is my passion."

"It is? I thought Finn was your passion?"

"It is! I mean he is? I mean…" She looked away from those calm honest eyes.

"Now ideal future for the Rachel Berry sitting here before me in her pretty white wedding dress?"

"I get married. Go to NYADA, star in several school musicals and get picked up straight out of college into a big time production. I continue on successfully for the rest of my life before retiring happily with my family."

"Realistic Rachel Hudson future."

"Rachel Hudson…? Right Rachel Hudson! Rachel Hudson….goes to NYADA…Finn joins me when he graduates because he'll have to repeat as well and he doesn't know what he'll do in New York but I'll support him whatever it is."

"Not talking about Finn, realistically you go to NYADA…."

"I go to NYADA, star in several musicals…"

"But what will you do when Finn gets tired of your constant rehearsals, and running lines."

"Well I'll just have to take some time off."

"But it's a cut throat world there. You slack and they'll give the lead to someone else."

"No…that's my part! He'll just have to understand."

"Understand yeah he's good at that. Until he gets mad because you're ignoring him."

"Oh well I'll make it up to him. He can't stay mad at me. I'm his wife."

"And he's your husband and he should support your dreams."

"Right!" She smiled.

"Does he?"

"Does he what?"

"Support your dreams?"

"Well of course he wants…" She looked down at her hands.

"So ideally and realistically without Finn you achieve your lifelong dreams. Realistically with him…Finn will want children…He'll want to visit his mom….He'll want to retire in Lima... He'll want to raise his kids here. Do you want any of those things?"

"…..No. I never want to come back to this town. This soul sucking pit that has no appreciation for the arts. Did you know Lima famous or infamous for that? For hating the arts. Performers compare it to Hell on Earth only worst! I wouldn't raise kids here if you paid me!" Rachel was passionate about this. She'd never put her kids through the hell she'd faced being an arts driven kid in Lima.

"Or if your husband wanted it. Because what he wants is important."

"…."

"More important than your dreams. I mean they're so chancy. Staying in Lima, raising Finn's kids, being the perfect mom just like his. Every boy wants a girl just like his mom right, you know."

Rachel looked stricken. Stay in Lima?

"Realistically Rachel Hudson goes to NYADA but Finn, her husband needs her so she comes home and he's so lost without her he asks her to defer a year. Maybe she doesn't even make that first semester before he asks her to defer. She loses her spot. She takes some classes at the local college, becomes Mr. Schue's assistant. Finn finishes high school and they go to New York. But work is hard to find for a guy with a high school diploma and no skills and his little wife pregnant with her first baby. They stick it out for 6 months but after another failed audition because she was late because she had to help her husband make lunch, or look for a job, or make it to an interview or just because she didn't go because he needed her at home. After 6 months of her dreams being crushed they return home to Lima. He gets a job in his step-father's car shop. They get a little house. Have a little baby and settle down into domestic bliss. They have a couple of kids and she tried and failed but she's happy cause she's with the one she loves, the one who needs her almost as much as the kids. Everyone tells her daughters and sons how bright and special their mom used to be. How everyone knew she'd be a star? But she's not that bright star that bright role model she wanted to be. She's just another housewife in Lima. Is Rachel Hudson happy?"

Tears slide down her face. She'd forgotten those dreams. The being a role model, being a star, being loved by all for doing what she loved. Getting out of this town. She'd had nightmares that had ended happier. She trembled. She looked up into that mirror again and saw that beautiful, bright star she'd always wanted to be age before her eyes. But not gracefully and full of laughter and joy but quickly and full of stress as she took care of a grown man and his children. Her wedding dress instead of a ball gown became mom jeans and a McKinley high sweat shirt. She turned tearing and terrified eyes to Noah's penetrating golden gaze.

Still calm, still honest. "Or years from now they tell of how Rachel Berry, hours before her wedding tossed her bags in the back of that juvenile delinquent, Puckerman's truck. Which is sitting outside right now with a full tank of gas. Rachel Berry went straight to New York. She filed for early graduation. She auditioned and audied classes at NYADA until she could start in the Fall. She even gets a part in their Summer production wowing the directors with her voice. She stays with Puck's aunt and uncle, as does Puck, paying a little rent saving money on room and board until she makes it big on Broadway. She becomes a big star just like she always knew she would."

She stared at him for a few moments before a text message on her phone forces her to break her stare. It's Kurt he'll be there in a few minutes with the girls so they can all do their hair for the wedding. The wedding! She turns back to him and stands up quickly.

He stands as well and tries to keep his smile to himself as he watches that ole' Crazy Berry look come back in her eyes.

"Noah help me out of my dress. I need to pack." She turned and presented her back and Puck quickly unzipped her and went to snag her luggage out of her closet. He started opened drawers and grabbing handfuls of clothes and tossing them in. Rachel returned from the bathroom in yoga pants and one of her little tank tops. Her arms were full of toiletries which she tossed in a smaller suitcase. "We have to hurry Kurt will be here soon."

Puck privately thought Kurt would help her pack but decided that he didn't need Rachel distracted from the goal. He quickly zipped up the full suitcases and grabbed the largest ones lugging them down the staircase and quickly tossing them in the back of his truck along with his own stuff. Rachel closely followed him and he lugged those suitcases in as well. He tossed her up into the cab and quickly slid her across the bench seat before hopping in after her. The beaten up white work truck drove quickly out of view as Puck broke the speed limit heading out of town. They were passing the city limit sign as Kurt pulled up in front of Rachel's house with a gaggle of her bridesmaids. By the time her dads got there to see her ransacked room the old truck was pushing 80 on the interstate. By the time Finn got there and found his ring on her night stand Rachel was singing Jann Arden's _Where No One Knows_. Puck just managed to stop her from tearing down the rearview mirror although he happily complied with her urges to go faster.

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Just a stray thought I had. Inspired by the line, "Tore the rearview mirror down. I wrapped it in my wedding gown." I always thought there must be a story there.


End file.
